South Korea's Park, Japan's Abe hold first formal bilateral talks

The meeting is a diplomatic plus for Abe, who had sought two-way talks with Park amid a push by the United States for Japan and South Korea to improve relations in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe speaks during a business summit attended by South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang in Seoul

South Korean President Park Geun-hye and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe held their first formal bilateral talks on Monday since both leaders took office, seeking to move beyond a bitter wartime history that has haunted ties between two of Washington's key Asian allies.

The meeting is a diplomatic plus for Abe, who had sought two-way talks with Park amid a push by the United States for Japan and South Korea to improve relations in the face of an increasingly assertive China.

The Asian neighbours have struggled to find common ground over Japan's 1910-1945 colonisation of Korea, particularly the issue of "comfort women", as the mostly Koreans forced into prostitution at Japanese wartime military brothels are euphemistically known in Japan.

"I hope today's summit will heal the bitter history in a broad sense and be a sincere one and an important opportunity to develop the two countries' relationship," Park told Abe at the start of the talks, the first formal meeting between the two since Abe took office in late 2012 and Park in early 2013, according to a transcript released by her office.

Abe told Park he wanted to work with her "to build a new future of forward-looking Japan-Korea relations" and an exchange of honest opinions by the leaders was needed.

Park said in an interview with Japan's Asahi Shimbun daily last week that resolving the "comfort women" issue was central to better ties with Japan. South Korea says Japanese leaders have repeatedly failed to properly atone for wartime atrocities.

Japan, which says the issue of compensation for "comfort women" was legally settled by their 1965 diplomatic treaty and that it stands by a 1993 government apology, worries that even if it takes fresh steps, South Korea will decline to bring the issue to a close.

The Park-Abe meeting came after a summit of South Korean, Japanese and Chinese leaders on Sunday where they agreed to restore what had been an annual forum to work towards greater economic integration and regional cooperation. "Japan, China and South Korea are neighbours, and because we are neighbours, there are difficult issues among us," Abe said at a news conference with Park and Chinese Premier Li Keqiang. South Korean and Japanese business executives who met last week in Tokyo expressed hope that better ties would improve bilateral trade.

Seoul's ties with Beijing have tightened while the chilly relationship with Japan has been reflected in trade. Trade with Japan accounted for 22 percent of South Korea's total trade in 1991, but had fallen to 8 percent by 2014. In contrast, South Korea's trade with China rose to 21 percent of its total last year from just 4 percent in 1992, when they normalised ties.